First_Backer_Inside

Rochester - 48 Maconaquah - 6 4th Quarter

rochester - 34 maconaquah - 6 2nd quarter

Not to derail the thread, but a quick question. Is LCC's enrollment still 1A? Might see them move down in the next few years if that is the case.

I'm not convinced...could you say it right to my face? Haven't seen them play, but have been very impressed with their scores. If they are bringing a lot back from the team this year, Riverton Parke might be in 2A in 2 years. Hopefully they have more talent and numbers coming up after these next two years.

Not saying the defenses' they've played against are any good, but if you haven't seen their offense and the way they run it hop on the ihsaa network sometime and watch a game. It's very impressive. Really good athletes. It will take a very disciplined defense reading keys every single play just to be in the right spot to make a play, then you have to tackle their athletes that are pretty darn good. Their offense is fun to watch. Again you are right, not sure the defenses they have played have any discipline like an Adam Central or Eastbrook might have, but still going to be difficult to stop would be my guess.

Based on youth numbers and middle school, it's going to be difficult to say the Knights can do what they did in those couple of years. The constant change in coaches isn't helping anything either. Yes, the conference has been at 10 teams always. The second a team leaves, another has replaced it the next year.

Can Mississinewa put up enough points to contend in 3A this year? Defense is still very solid, but doesn't seem like they have the fire power on offense that they had a year ago.

Go Monrovia, their sectional is about the only one I pay attention to from the south in 2A. One public school surrounded by a bunch of private schools in the sectional. Go get'em Bulldogs!!!

Eastbrook vs Alexandria should be a pretty good one.

Westfield, HSE...we know what you're searching for, sorry Carroll and Crown Point, it's not happening this year.

Last week of conference play before the tournament starts! Game of the week, Rochester vs Mac for the conference championship. Both teams undefeated in conference play. Same situation as last year. Maconaquah at Rochester - The Braves survived a scare last week against Manchester. If anything, I think it shows how dangerous this Mac team can be. To come back from 28 points down is very impressive. On the other side of that you can't be putting yourself into a hole like that this late in the season. Everything is more difficult from here on out with the tournament coming up. I think this will be a good one. Who wins the battle between the Rochester defense and the Mac offense. Both are very impressive. Rochester's offense had 400 yards of total offense in the first half against Northwestern last week. The wing-T offense is starting to click big time here late in the season. Northwestern at Northfield - Northwestern wins this one. Been a down year for Northfield. However, they are young so things can only get better for them in the coming years. Peru at Manchester - I don't know what is going on with Peru. I thought they would be better than they have been so far this year. Manchester wins this one after an impressive showing against Mac that they probably let get away from them. Southwood at Cass - This game might be better than expected. I think Cass got a great draw with a chance to make it to the Sectional finals in 34. Gotta take care of business this week against a Southwood team that has come up with a few wins. I think Cass gets this one tho. Wabash at Whitko - I think Wabash has the better athletes. It will come down to who plays better defense this week, and I'm not sure either team really wants to. I'll take Wabash. Who ya got this week?

I can make a Gibson Southern and Memorial thread for you guys if you would like, won't take me too long at all to do it...lol (Just messing with you guys)

What might be even worse is Greencastle has beaten 3 other teams this year...yikes!

Sounds like they did everything they could not to put 100 up on the board.

Bluffton - Stop the QB, win the game AC - Limit the big play, win the game

I think what you have looks pretty good. I will say tho, I think this will be a year where there isn't a clean cut favorite for the North and the South. I'm not sure there are even true clear favorites in a lot of the sectionals this year. I don't think the sagarin ratings are very accurate this year, and I think a lot of teams records are skewed due to a lot of teams not being as tough in different conferences that usually are. Will be a fun tournament this year and looking forward to it.

Maybe instead of a North/South All-Star game, we should have a region tournament during the summer. (I know, I know, it won't work, not enough time in the summer to make it happen, kids going to college to play at the next level, but what if in a perfect world you could...)

It's usually not too far off from what the sagarin ratings had teams at to begin with maybe just a little different.

You can see them throughout the top 25 threads week in and week out saying teams like Hobart and Andrean should be in the top 25. Not saying both aren't good teams they aren't top 25 good. Again same thing to answer your question, not saying the corners of the state have better football than the NW, I'm just saying there aren't more than 1 or 2 teams in the NW playing better football than 25 other teams in the state.

Not saying there aren't good programs in the NW, just tired of listening to all you NW guys break an arm jerking off the NW like there's going to be 4 of the 6 state champions in football every year coming from that area. There hasn't been a state champion from NW since Valpo in 2021 or 2022 which is recent, but every year the NW talks like there's going to be at least one if not two every year. Yes NW has good football, they don't have 5 teams playing top 25 football in the state. There are maybe 2 a year.

Couldn't agree more. Are there a couple state contending teams in the area, absolutely. Are there more than 1 or 2 teams that are top 25 in the entire state, not likely.

I get it...but I don't at the same time. He could injure himself at any point focusing on basketball as he could playing football. Hard decisions for a young man to make especially when you start talking about money at the college level (which I could turn into another huge rant, but I'll save us all the trouble 😉 ). Like I said, I like the dudes on my football team that are athletes, not football players. Just to clarify I understand why the kid you are talking about made his decisions, just don't necessarily agree with it.

So was Allen Iverson, but he still played football. Worked out okay for him...from a sports standpoint at least. I hate this idea of "focusing on a sport." That's BS. You can play football and then go in the gym and get 1,000 shots up after. If you are really that good, you aren't going to just forget how to play basketball overnight. Is there a risk for injury, yes. There's a risk for injury walking in and out of your door everyday for school or work. There's a risk of injury walking up and down the stairs in your house everyday. High school is the only time you get to do multiple sports most times than not. College is for "focusing on a sport". It's ridiculous that coaches and parents let their kids think this way these days. Sorry for getting off topic. Just rubs me the wrong way seeing ATHLETES not being ATHLETES and just being basketball players or being football players or baseball players and not being ATHLETES. If I were a college coach for any sport I would want athletes because those are always the fiercest competitors, guys that want to win at everything they do. Again sorry for my off topic rant. Proceed with sustainability lol

On his website if you go to game capsules and the given day of the game, it shows the games and their predictions underneath it along with a lot of other information.

Can't believe everything you read on the internet 😉 Would be cool for the Braves and Zebras to meet up for the conference championship to end the year. However, I'm rooting for the alma mater this week against the Braves. Always pulling for the Kings as long as they aren't matched up against the Zebras.